BIG SCIENCE IN THE SKY

Published: April 8, 1990

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The image of the scientist as lonely scholar in his laboratory is fading fast. Inevitably, as the mysteries of nature become ever more subtle, more complex apparatus are needed to penetrate them, and big science is the order of the day. And members of Congress, science specialists in the Office of Management and Budget and in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as scientists and people throughout Government and industry who are concerned with science policy, have to deal with such issues as: What is the proper balance between supporting large facilities and supporting individual investigators? How do we measure out the support between one science and another, or that given to people in major universities and those in lesser institutions? And, underlying all, what is the proper level of support of scientific research in our society?

''THE SPACE TELESCOPE'' manages to illuminate all of these subjects. The writing is spare and clear. Technical matters are explained and described, and will give no trouble to the general reader. The cast of characters is huge. Astronomers come in many flavors: the ground-based astronomers concerned about their own funding, the planetary scientists in competition with the cosmologists, and those who choose to ply their science within the NASA bureaucracy. Rivalry between the Goddard and Marshall laboratories plays a crucial role in the drama, and the industrial contractors, with their technical strengths and managerial weaknesses, are great characters. Mr. Smith marvels at the residue of scientific exhilaration that remains after so many years of frustration. The lesson is that big science doesn't necessarily erase the traditional joys of intellectual engagement.

A widely held view in Government now is that this nation must handle its science more coherently. In the executive branch, science is done in a variety of agencies: NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Departments of Defense, Energy and Commerce, to name a few. Even the most courageous and forceful of science advisers to the President must be daunted by the prospect of trying to bring coherence to the aims of the lords of so many executive strongholds.

''The Space Telescope'' tells of how a lack of coherent science policy produces decisions that are only in part driven by science and are often dictated by such extra-scientific factors as Governmental agency expansionism, the desire of Congress to spread Federal spending equitably around the country and less noble aims. When such forces come to bear on a big science project like the space telescope, the consequences can be devastating. With exquisite clarity, Mr. Smith exposes penny-wise strategies that lead to less science, and more expense, in the long run. That is why ''The Space Telescope'' is so valuable. As a case history, it touches on all the issues, but with the drama of specific incidents involving real people and institutions. One cannot but compare the space technology story and the still unfolding play of the superconducting super collider. The super collider is a huge particle accelerator for which initial construction funds have been appropriated. It is to be built in Texas, and it is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1998. Before one shovel of Texas soil is dug, the project is in its ninth year. Recent news items indicate new cost estimates, and the super collider may be facing its ''Black Saturday.'' It was conceived in the same system of chaotic science policy procedures as the space telescope, and anyone familiar with it will feel secure in saying that the lesson to be drawn from Mr. Smith's book can be generalized.

We need big science if we are to continue to be an industrial society. However, if we don't clean up our act - in the executive branch, in the Congress and in the scientific community - we will continue to have projects that fail (Mr. Smith mentions a few) or, at best, we will see scientific objectives compromised and costs escalating and we will find it increasingly difficult to maintain in the scientists that hot flame of awe, mystery and joy at the doing of science. One fault that can be found with this book is that the author does not exult enough in the fact that, after all its troubles, the telescope is complete, assembled and waiting for its mission, to begin the exciting task of providing humanity with a new window on the universe.